Govt agrees on proposal to form commission for Panama Papers probe

ISLAMABAD: A meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today, with senior leaders of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) has agreed on a proposal for constituting a commission to probe revelations in the Panama Papers, ARY News reported.

The consultative meeting is held at a crucial time when the Supreme Court has begun hearing the Panama Papers case.

Mr. Sharif is under growing pressure from opposition parties over his children’s offshore bank accounts, revealed in the Panama Papers leak.

PTI chairman Imran Khan led a previous mass protest in the summer of 2014 that lasted four months, allying himself with populist cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri to back a sit-in in front of parliament calling for the government to resign over election rigging allegations.

Panama Papers, one of the biggest media leaks in history, consists of 11.5 million documents spanning four decades from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, shows how some of the world’s most powerful people, including over 200 people from Pakistan, have concealed their money offshore.

Among those named are three of Nawaz’s four children – including daughter Maryam, and sons Hasan and Hussain — with the records showing they owned London real estate through offshore companies administered by the firm.

According to the documents, Maryam owned the British Virgin Islands-based firms Nielsen Enterprises Limited and Nescoll Limited. The two firms were incorporated in 1994 and 1993. They owned “a UK property each for use by the family” of the companies’ owners.

Hussain and Maryam signed a document dated June 2007 that was part of a series of transactions in which Deutsche Bank Geneva lent up to $13.8 million to Nescoll, Nielsen and another company, with their London properties as collateral.